SALT LAKE CITY – Every day they walk into practice, they also walk onto a movie set – the one where they filmed the story about the little team that gets its big chance and lives out the unthinkable dream.
That’s the story of “Hoosiers.”
That’s also the story of Butler – the team that’s reminding everyone that big schools with big money don’t have a monopoly on everything in big-time sports.
Yes, the boys from Butler did it – getting 22 points from Gordon Hayward to defeat Kansas State 63-56 in the West Regional final Saturday and advance to the Final Four.
Next, the Bulldogs take their 24-game winning streak to downtown Indianapolis. Though only five miles from the Butler campus, it’s hard to think of many programs that have taken a longer, more unlikely road to get this close to a championship.
“It’d be just as cool if we moved it to Hinkle,” Butler coach Brad Stevens said of his team’s fieldhouse. “I’d be all for that.”
No such luck. Still, the fifth-seeded Bulldogs (32-4) are writing their own underdog story, even if they can’t really be called underdogs anymore.
Shelvin Mack scored 16 and Ronald Nored and Willie Veasley keyed an in-your-face defensive effort on Kansas State guards Jacob Pullen and Denis Clemente to help Butler become the first school from a true mid-major conference to make the Final Four since George Mason in 2006 – a trip that also ended in Indianapolis.
“This is probably the coolest thing that’s ever happened in my life,” Nored said.
Trailing almost the entire game, No. 2 Kansas State (29-8) rallied to tie it at 54 with 3:09 remaining.
But Butler didn’t fold, it only got better. The Bulldogs scored the next nine points to seal the game before Pullen’s shot at the buzzer dropped – but offered no consolation.
“It was a great experience, but it hurts that it had to end today,” Pullen said.
Enrollment at Butler is in the 4,500 range, about 15 of whom have reminded everyone why college basketball captures America’s heart this time every year. But make no mistake – this is not some scrappy, overmatched team that needed a break, no Danny and the Miracles, or Villanova shooting 79 percent to knock off mighty Georgetown.
This is a team that stood toe-to-toe with Syracuse on one night, then Kansas State the next, shutting down two power teams from power conferences.
Credit for that, once again, goes to the Bulldogs, coached by the 33-year-old Stevens, who has refused to buy into the underdog story.
Being a mid-major, he insists, is mainly about money and resources, not about 5-on-5 in a 40-minute game with nothing – or everything – on the line.
Stevens found the players who fit his style – players who work hard, don’t back down from a challenge and don’t care that the big schools didn’t come chasing after them.
They’re players who loved Hinkle Fieldhouse, the home of the Bulldogs, but also a tourist stopover because it’s where the 1980s classic “Hoosiers,” starring Gene Hackman, was filmed.
“I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched that movie,” said Hayward, a native of Brownsburg. “I lost count. Growing up in Indiana, I have watched it so many times. But I definitely love that movie.”
A great underdog story, most of America will call it.
Good bet, though, that the boys from Butler won’t settle with being happy to be there.
